How did a computer scientist such as Geoffrey Hinton manage to win a Nobel Prize in physics when computer science already has its own Nobel Prize equivalent in the Turing Awards?

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.

How did you get to be a leftist?

^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).

"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."

"Hey guys, AI is pretty big so let's centre our prizes on it this year. We can get some attention, and it's all about advertising, at the end of the day, isn't it?"

Why has Trump suddenly lost the massive momentum he had after his assassination attempt where everybody thought he had secured the presidency?

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

There you go.^†

When he's standing, in front of you

Gene Hackman’s Wife Died of Hantavirus. Now the Rodent-Borne Disease Is Spreading in the U.S. - AOL.com

In December 1973, when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, comedian Tom Lehrer dropped his mic and stamped on it—satire had just died.

"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"

[The basic structure of artificial neural networks] has close similarities with spin models in statistical physics applied to magnetism or alloy theory. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes research exploiting this connection to make breakthrough methodological advances in the field of ANN.

Utah woman loses 100 pounds in one year: Here's how - KSL.com

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

In awarding prizes, the Nobel Committees often seem only marginally more competent than MTG is at explaining meteorology. And if they can give a literature prize for lyrics like:

"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"

What percent of "being a good programmer" is due to expertise in the syntax of a language(s)? Could you have mastered syntax and still be a bad programmer; or, conversely, be a great programmer with only a fundamental handle on syntax?

"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"

"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"

A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Do you think there will ever be a movie that features a line such as “You graduated at the top of your class in liberal arts, we need your help”?

Whatever.

… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*

[Younger voice] "But wait a minute, Ising-Lenz goes back to the 1920's. And didn't Hinton plagiarise rather a lot? He also didn't invent modern backprop, did he, that's Linnainmaa? And Amari preceded Hopfield, too. That's not a good look."

Circle IPO soars, giving hope to more startups waiting to go public - TechCrunch

Whatever.

[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"

(Mumbles of assent)

Utah doctors see promising results from new radiation therapy for brain tumors - KSLTV.com

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

You can have your cake and eat it too

Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:

What are the signs of legitimate BPO project opportunities versus scams?